What God Expects From His Vineyard. Monday 9th Week Ordinary Time
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Breakfast with the Word Monday 9th Week Ordinary Time of the Year
Tobit 1:3,2:1-8 , Mark 12:1-12
What God Expects From His Vineyard
In the beginning, when God created man, He blessed Him saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, fill, replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth”.
God blesses man and decorates him with gifts, talents and natural resources. God blesses us with everything that we need but demands just one thing from us, which is obedience to His Word.
God demands that we truthfully obey His commands. He expects us to bear good fruits. He knows that the only way we can bear good fruits is to follow whatever He tells us to do. By doing that, we cannot but produce good fruits wherever we are.
The Parable and Interpretation.
1. In the gospel, Jesus tells the story of a man who planted a vineyard and fenced it around, dug out a trough for the winepress and built a tower.
Later the man leased this vineyard to the tenants and went abroad. When the season came, He sent a servant to collect from them His share of the produce from the vineyard.
These tenants seized the man, thrashed him and sent him empty-handed. The man also sends another servant to them, they beat the servant, and treat him shamefully.
Yet He sends another servant, this one they killed, then the man still sends some others, they thrash some of them and then kill the rest.
He later sends His Son believing they will respect His Son, but those tenants know that He is the heir. So they seized him, killed him and threw him out of the Vineyard. Jesus asks them what the owner would do.
Let us interpret this text in simple terms.
The Interpretation
In Mark 11, which is before this chapter, Jesus was questioned by the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders. They were questioning His authority. Therefore this parable was directed to the Jewish leaders and the people of Israel.
The man who planted this vineyard is God while the vineyard is the people of Israel. In this parable, Jesus reveals how God has cared for, provided and protected His people Israel. He has provided them with all they need.
The tenants or the farmers in the parable are those Jewish leaders, chief priests and teachers of the law, who God has handed over His people Israel to nurture them.
God has already provided them with the necessities they need. They have the grace, gifts, provisions and protections from God, what God expects from His vineyard is to bear good fruits. They have to use these provisions and give back to God a bountiful harvest.
When the time for the harvests came, God sent His prophets, patriarchs, messengers and servants to His people, rather than listening to them, these people were prosecuted by the leaders and chief priests.
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God sent many of His prophets to them; Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Elijah, Eliahs, AMos, etc, they paid deaf ears to them and continued in their evil. At last, God Decides to send His Son Jesus Christ, hoping that they will listen to Him but instead, they would torture and crucify Him to death. Then comes a day of reckoning when we shall give an account of our stewardess to God.
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What God Expects From His Vineyard
This parable invariably is teaching us that God has made Huge investments in us. The gospel says He digs a pit for the winepress and builds a tower.
In those days towers were very expensive and a sign of somebody who is very wealthy. Towers also announce the building or an investment to the people who are living far away. Therefore, towers will bring people to the site of the investment.
Therefore, God building a tower on us, means that He has given us the highest gifts and talents that will attract us to the breakthrough, wealth, attraction, progress, and success that we need.
What God now expects from us is to use these things He has given us to work for the glory of His name. He wants us to always bear good fruits. He constantly sends people to remind us of our vocations and obligations. He sends priests, friends, and relatives to talk to us but sometimes we pay deaf ears to them.
2. Maybe there is a particular life that you live that is drawing you back or a particular sin you commit that is always killing your soul. God continues to make you listen to homilies and read reflections that will always address your problems and situations.
Hence, instead of listening and accepting what these are telling us, we hate these people and see them as destiny killers. Many times, we brand them as people who do not want our progress.
3. In your places of work, sometimes we become so lazy and unable to work, always busy on social media. Or You do not live well with your husband or wife, or maybe you are someone who does hook up and lives waywardly, due to the love God has for you, He inspires someone to talk to you.
Instead of thinking about your life and making a change, you turn against the person and even plan against him or her because He or she is telling you the truth.
4. Sometimes like tenants, we think that everything is now in our hands. We tend to forget that we are just tenants and God only gives us the privilege to work for Him. Hence, we forget this and begin to think that we are the owners of everlasting life until the day of reckoning comes. Surely there will be a day we shall say “Had I know’.
Therefore, what God expects from us is only obedience to His word. Just as those tenants trashed and killed the son of the vineyard, is how we keep crucifying Jesus with our sins.
Let us not forget what God expects from us. God does not expect us to misuse anything He gives to us. What God expects from his vineyard is nothing but bearing good fruits. He has already blessed us. Everything is now in our hands.
May God Bless You and give us the grease to bear good fruits that will last. Amen
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